Urban mobile network system

ABSTRACT

An embodiment of a mobile communication system includes a plurality of mobile units operating within a defined operating area, each of the mobile units having a processor, a memory for storing a mobile unit file structure, an application running on the processor for operating on the mobile unit file structure, and a receiver for receiving on a common receive communication channel data. The mobile communication system further includes a plurality of geolocation markers disposed within the defined operating area, each having a memory for storing geolocation information to define a relative position within the defined operating area, and a geolocation transmitter for transmitting the defined geolocation information on the common receive communication channel, the geolocation transmitter having a geolocation transmit range less than the defined operating area.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/195,414, filed on Jun. 28, 2016, and entitled URBAN MOBILE NETWORKSYSTEM, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,801,076 issuing Oct. 24, 2017 (Atty. Dkt.No. BLNX-33192), which U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/195,414 is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/734,869, filed onJun. 9, 2015, and entitled URBAN MOBILE NETWORK SYSTEM, now U.S. Pat.No. 9,380,113, issued Jun. 28, 2016 (Atty. Dkt. No. BLNX-32685), whichU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/734,869 is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/502,040, filed on Apr. 13, 2012, andentitled URBAN MOBILE NETWORK SYSTEM, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,054,899 issuedJun. 9, 2015 (Atty. Dkt. No. BLNX-31013), which U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/502,040 is a 35 U.S.C. § 371 National Phase Application ofPCT/IB2010/02897, filed Oct. 20, 2010, and entitled URBAN MOBILE NETWORKSYSTEM (Atty. Dkt. No. BLNX-30422), which Application PCT/IB2010/02897claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/253,473,filed Oct. 20, 2009, and entitled ENABLER OF LOCATION-BASED SERVICES ANDADVERTISING (Atty. Dkt. No. BLNX-29745), the specifications of which areincorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention pertains in general to mobile network systems and,more particularly, to a mobile network system that utilizes a broadcastmode for transmission of information to a plurality of mobile units.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, the desire for constant interaction with otherindividuals has seen a rapid increase. This is due, in large part, tothe ever increasing bandwidth of mobile portable data assistances (PDAs)that allow a user to readily access multiple data networks. Some PDAsare able to interface with the data network of their cell phone providerand also with WiFi networks that utilize 802.11.xx communicationprotocols. Initially, the use of these data networks allowed users toaccess their email accounts which has become a very popular way tocommunicate. Also, text messaging has become very popular and, in somecountries, has even exceeded phone conversations in use for variousreasons. This phenomenon was then followed by the current use of cellphone applications that allow users to interface with their PDA in veryuser friendly manners. With such apps, social networking has evolvedsuch that users of a PDA can interface with individuals in theirimmediate and extended social networks. As more and more people enterinto these social networks, the demand for cell phones and bandwidth hasincreased.

One of the disadvantages to most social networks is that they operate ona TCP/IP protocol that requires a bidirectional communication pathwherein the user's cell phone must request data when desired and, evenif it operates in a mode where it automatically receives data, there isstill some type of bidirectional communication path. Thus, when the PDAenters into a particular cell site or cell network, it must registerwith the network and, after registration, if data is to be “pushed” tothat cell phone, the phone must be contacted, a link opened, and thendata communication allowed between some central unit and the cell phoneto transfer data thereto. All of this requires a great deal ofbandwidth. Further, a large number of the applications require “offsite” processing such that the data communication path is required inorder for the user to even use the application effectively. Some reasonsfor this are that the amount of data required to be stored on the phoneis too large or that some processing is required in association with theoperation of the application, which processing is better performed offthe phone for power reasons, since any processing that is performed inthe phone consumes power.

SUMMARY

The present invention disclosed and claimed herein, in one aspectthereof, comprises a mobile network system that includes a central unithaving a database having stored therein a data structure, and a centralunit communications transceiver for communicating with a first network.The mobile network system further includes at least one intermediatebase station having a base station transceiver for communication withthe central unit over the first network, and a mobile transmitter fortransmitting data to a second network. The mobile network system stillfurther includes a plurality of mobile units, each having a mobilereceiver for receiving data from the base station over the secondnetwork, and a memory for storing the data. The central unit operates ina broadcast mode to map at least one portion of the data structure tothe memory in the mobile unit through the intermediate base station suchthat the portion of the data structure is received by substantially allof the mobile units at the same time.

Another embodiment of a mobile network system includes a central unithaving a database having stored therein a data structure, and a centralunit communications transceiver for communicating with a first network.The mobile network system further includes at least one intermediatebase station having a base station transceiver for communication withthe central unit over the first network, and a mobile transmitter fortransmitting data to a second network. The mobile network system furtherincludes at least one mobile unit having a mobile receiver for receivingdata from the base station over the second network, a memory for storingthe data, a display, and a processor for running an application todisplay at least a portion of the stored data. The mobile network systemstill further includes at least one geolocation marker external to themobile unit for generating a signal including position informationindicating a relative position, wherein the signal is received by themobile unit when the mobile unit is proximate to the base station. Thecentral unit operates in a broadcast mode to map at least one portion ofthe data structure to the memory in the mobile unit through theintermediate base station. The application running on the processor isoperable to display a portion of the stored data associated with therelative position.

An embodiment of a method for communicating information in a mobilenetwork includes storing a data structure in a database of a centralunit, transmitting, by the central unit operating in a broadcast mode,at least a portion of the data structure to at least one intermediatebase station via a first network, and receiving the at least a portionof the data structure by the at least one intermediate base station. Themethod further includes transmitting, by the at least one intermediatebase station, the at least a portion of the data structure to aplurality of mobile units via second network, receiving the at least aportion of the data structure by each of the plurality of mobile unitssuch that the portion of the data structure is received by substantiallyall of the mobile units at the same time, and mapping at least oneportion of the data structure to a memory in each of the plurality ofmobile units.

An embodiment of an urban mobile communication system includes aplurality of mobile units operating within a defined operating area,each of the mobile units having a processor, a memory for storing amobile unit file structure, an application running on the processor foroperating on the mobile unit file structure, and a receiver forreceiving on a common receive communication channel data. The urbanmobile communication system further includes a plurality of geolocationmarkers disposed within the defined operating area, each having a memoryfor storing geolocation information to define a relative position withinthe defined operating area, and a geolocation transmitter fortransmitting the defined geolocation information on the common receivecommunication channel, the geolocation transmitter having a geolocationtransmit range less than the defined operating area.

An embodiment of a method for communication information in an urbanmobile communication system includes providing a plurality of mobileunits operating within a defined operating area, each of the mobileunits having a processor, and a memory for storing a mobile unit filestructure, running an application on the processor of each of theplurality of mobile units for operating on the mobile unit filestructure, and receiving, by each of the plurality of mobile units, dataon a common receive communication channel. The method further includesproviding a plurality of geolocation markers disposed within the definedoperating area, each having a memory for storing geolocation informationto define a relative position within the defined operating area and ageolocation transmitter, and transmitting, by the geolocationtransmitter of each of the plurality of geolocation markers, the definedgeolocation information on the common receive communication channel, thegeolocation transmitter having a geolocation transmit range less thanthe defined operating area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding, reference is now made to thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an overall diagrammatic view of the mobile urbannetwork system;

FIG. 2 illustrates a more detailed diagram of the mobile urban networksystem;

FIG. 3 illustrates the manner in which data is mapped to the mobileunit;

FIG. 3a illustrates a display to which the data is mapped;

FIG. 4 illustrates the base station panel configuration;

FIG. 4a illustrates a diagrammatic view of a base station;

FIGS. 5a and 5b illustrate the communication timing for the defaultchannel and for the beacon operation;

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of the various PHY, MAC andapplication layers of the mobile unit;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart depicting the operation of the MAC;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart depicting the operation of theapplication layer;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart depicting operation of a mobile request;

FIG. 9a illustrates a timing diagram for the communication request fromthe mobile unit;

FIG. 10 illustrates a diagrammatic view of the overall packet as definedin the PHY layer;

FIG. 11 illustrates the inter-packet spacing;

FIG. 12 illustrates the utilization of slots in the transmissionchannels;

FIG. 13 illustrates a more detailed diagrammatic view of the requestpackets;

FIG. 14 illustrates a diagrammatic view of the block transfer operation;

FIG. 15 illustrates a diagrammatic view of the message queue technique;

FIG. 16 illustrates a block diagram of the geolocation marker;

FIG. 17 illustrates a flow chart for the operation of the geolocationmarker;

FIG. 18 illustrates a diagrammatic view of the message format for level0;

FIG. 19 illustrates level 2 for the web link of the message format;

FIG. 20 illustrates level 1 for the message format;

FIGS. 20a-20d illustrate a multi-packet transmission utilizingsegmentation;

FIG. 21 illustrates the message format for level 1 associated with thedetailed information packet;

FIG. 22 illustrates the packet format for the sync packets;

FIG. 23 illustrates the packet format for the beacon packets;

FIG. 24 illustrates a diagrammatic view of an application utilizing anarray of information;

FIGS. 24a and 24b illustrate the packet format for accommodating thearray application;

FIG. 25 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the array of FIG. 24;

FIGS. 26a-26c illustrate the packet format for transferring a file;

FIG. 27 illustrates a diagrammatic view of a display associated with anadvertisement on a map;

FIG. 27a illustrates a detail of the advertisement;

FIG. 28 illustrates a flow chart depicting the virtual queue operation;

FIG. 29 illustrates a display for the virtual queue on the mobile unit;

FIG. 29a illustrates the packet format for transferring informationregarding attractions in the virtual queue;

FIG. 30 illustrates the packet format for the transmission from thecentral unit regarding the status and wait time for an attraction;

FIG. 31 illustrates the packet format for the request from the mobileunit in the virtual queue applications;

FIG. 32 illustrates the packet format for the response packet from thecentral unit to the mobile unit request;

FIG. 33 illustrates a diagrammatic view of the mobile unit; and

FIG. 34 illustrates a block diagram of the mobile unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numbers are usedherein to designate like elements throughout, the various views andembodiments of an urban mobile network system are illustrated anddescribed, and other possible embodiments are described. The figures arenot necessarily drawn to scale, and in some instances the drawings havebeen exaggerated and/or simplified in places for illustrative purposesonly. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate the many possibleapplications and variations based on the following examples of possibleembodiments.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view of theurban mobile communications system. At the heart of the system is acentral unit 102. The central unit 102 is operable to store thereat adata structure which is comprised of a plurality of data files. Thesedata files are transmitted to a Global Communication Network (GCN) 104which is typically referred to as the internet. The central unit 102connects through the GCN 104 to a plurality of base stations 106 viadirect connections thereto. The base stations 106 each include an RFtransmitter and an associated antenna 108. Each base station 106 isoperable to transmit a signal within a coverage range 110. The range 110is defined by the minimum power level that can be received by acompatible receiver within the receive range 110. This is typically at alevel of approximately −102 dBm. The transmission protocol utilized inthe exemplary embodiment is a modification of the 802.15.4 protocol aswill be further described herein. This essentially defines the range ofthe transmitter as parameterized by the power level, the atmosphere andother external objects in the transmission range 110. However, the range110 is defined by such things as the surrounding environment and thepower levels of the transmitter. The plurality of base stations 106 aredisposed such that they can possibly overlap and provide coverage for aparticular area set forth by the designer of a system. This is afunction of deleting “holes” in the coverage area such that a receivercan move around within the network and be in as continuous a connectionwith base stations 106 as possible. There can be multiple base stations106 in a particular area that are defined as being on a single networkID. This will be described in more detail herein below. Thus, there is“substantially” continuous coverage accounting for the various holes ordead spots that normally occur in a coverage area.

The central unit 102 is operable to transmit data to each of the basestations 106 for storage thereof and relay therefrom to mobile units 112that are disposed within the associated transmission or coverage range110 for a given base station 106. Each of the mobile units (MU) 112 hasan antenna 114 associated therewith. The mobile units 112 each have atleast a receiver therein for receiving the signal from the base station106 and the associated data. Each of the mobile units 112 also hasassociated therewith a processor for processing the data and for runningan application thereon, and a display for displaying information to theuser associated with the operation of the application. In variousembodiments, a mobile unit 112 may be a mobile telephone, a smart phone,a PDA, a portable scanner (such as for application in a supermarket) orany other suitable mobile device or mobile unit. The base stations 106and the mobile units 112 each operate on a modified 802.15.4 protocolwhich allows for multiple channels. There are 15 channels provided inthe exemplary embodiment. Some of these channels can be set up fortransmission operations and some for receive operations.

In the general operation, the central unit 102 is operable to“broadcast” a data structure that is disposed thereat to the basestation 106 for the purpose of relaying this data structure to each ofthe mobile units 112 disposed within their associated transmission range110. This is a transmit only function such that the data is pseudocontinuously transmitted to all of the base stations. What is meant bypseudo continuous is that the data structure from the central unit 102is transmitted to the base stations 106 and this data is then, on aregular basis, output from the transmitter to whatever mobile units 112that are listening. Once a mobile unit 112 has received the datastructure, it will ignore additional retransmissions of that same data.The base station 106 retransmits the data on as continuous a basis aspossible depending upon whether other information needs to betransmitted, as will be described herein below. In any event, it is acircular type buffer wherein the data structure is completelytransmitted and, thereafter, the data structure is placed in the queueagain for retransmission.

When a new mobile unit 112 comes into the network, i.e., enters thenetwork from somewhere else or turns on within the network, it willimmediately recognize that it is within the network and that atransmission has been received from the base station 106. A signal fromthe base station will be detected containing at least a network ID whichdefines an application that is necessary to interface with the centralunit through the base station 106 and, if the application is resident onthe mobile unit 112, the application will be launched to receive thedata, process the data and display it in accordance with the applicationthat was launched. This all occurs without the necessity for the mobileunit 112 to send any information to the base station 106. As such, whena packet of data is transmitted out of the base station 106, it istransmitted to all mobile units within its transmission range 110. Bycontinuously retransmitting the data, the mobile unit 112 can be ensuredof being “up to date” on the various information transferred from thedata structure of the central unit 102, through the base station 106 andsubsequently to the mobile unit 112. All of the data reception issynchronized to the base station transmission via a sync signaltransmitted by the base station 106.

In addition to the base station 106 being within a defined range 110(actually defined by the transmission properties of the base station106), there are also provided a plurality of geolocation markers 116disposed within the defined transmission range. There can be up to 12 ormore geolocation marker 116 associated with each base station 106. Thegeolocation marker 116 is a transmitter that operates on the sameprotocol as the base station 106. However, it typically is a transmitterthat transmits a beacon, which beacon includes information as toposition. This position can be a relative position that can be definedby a position ID or a node ID which, when received by a mobile unit 112,can be identified by the application as being at a certain position. Ina particular embodiment, the position information may include latitudeand longitude coordinates. In still another embodiment, the positioninformation may include a location name associated with the geolocationmarker 116. This is a predefined position. In an exemplary embodiment,the geolocation marker 116 receives the position information in anupdate message from the base station 106 prior to the geolocation marker116 transmitting the beacon message. In a particular embodiment, thebase station 106 sends the update message containing the positioninformation to the geolocation marker 116 at a predetermined time aftersending a synchronization packet. In another embodiment, the basestation 106 sends the update message containing the position informationto the geolocation marker 116 at a predetermined time after receiving a“lost message” from the geolocation marker 116, the “lost message”indicating that a predetermined time has passed since the geolocationmarker 116 has received a synchronization message from the base station106. Alternatively, as part of the another embodiment, the geolocationmarker 116 may have a GPS unit associated therewith that can determineits longitude and latitude, i.e., it can determine its exact coordinateposition within a coordinate grid. In another embodiment, thegeolocation marker 116 may be preconfigured with the positioninformation.

In at least one embodiment, the geolocation markers 116 are batteryoperated devices, but could be line powered in other embodiments. Thegeolocation markers 116 operate in synchronization with the operation ofthe base station 106 to transmit out on a single channel the longitudeand latitude information. In a particular embodiment, the geolocationmarkers 116 further include a solar panel to charge the battery duringday time operation. They have a defined transmission range 118 that ismuch smaller than the transmission range of the base stations 106. Thisis facilitated through power control of the geolocation marker 116. Aswill be described herein below, the geolocation marker 116 can have thepower thereof increased such that it can talk to the base station 106.This is for the purpose of providing status information to the basestation 106. However, in the normal mode of operation, the range 118 ismuch smaller than the range 110. The reason for this is that the mobileunit 112 only processes the information from a geolocation marker 116when the mobile unit 112 enters into the range 118. Thus, the mobileunit 112 can roam around the range 110 and, only when it comes withinthe range 118 will it receive information as to position. It willutilize this position information in conjunction with the applicationresiding on the mobile unit 112 to either augment the information thatis being displayed or to alter the information that is being displayed.For example, if a map is being displayed, passing within the region 118will place some type of indicator stating “you are here” on the map.Alternatively, when the mobile unit 112 passes by a geolocation markerwithin the range 118, an advertisement could be displayed on the mobileunit 112 display.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view of asimplified operation of the system. In this operation, the central unit102 is illustrated as communicating with a plurality of the basestations 106. They, in turn, are connected to associated ones of themobile units 112 and the geolocation markers 116. It can be seen thatthe central unit 102 utilizes the base stations 106 merely as a relay tothe mobile units 112. In essence, the central unit 102 has a virtualbroadcast connection to each of the mobile units 112. Each of the mobileunits 112 are disposed on a common level with respect to the centralunit 102, i.e., if data is transmitted to one, it is transmitted to all.This transmission is such that a packet of data is transmitted at onetime to all of the base stations 106, and then relayed by all the basestations to whatever mobile unit(s) 112 is(are) within its range andthat packet then received and stored by the mobile unit 112 within the“listening” range. This operation is completed without any indicationbeing sent back to either the base station 106 or the central unit 102from any one of the mobile units 112 acknowledging that the data hasbeen received. However, as will be described herein below, it ispossible for a central unit 102 to actually contact a particular basestation for the purpose of sending information thereto. Of course, theremust be some knowledge of the particular mobile unit 112 being withinthe range of any of the associated base stations 106. Further, each ofthe base stations 106 are defined as being in a common network, i.e.,they will have a common network ID. This network ID is typicallyassociated with a particular program or application operating on themobile unit 112. Thus, the central unit 102 through knowledge of thenetwork ID can transmit the information to the base stations 106 knowingwhich application is running on a mobile unit 112. The data that istransmitted as part of the data structure associated with the centralunit 102 is therefore application specific. In another alternativeembodiment, the central unit 102 may transmit a first portion of thedata structure to one of the base stations 106, and a second portion ofthe database structure to another of the base stations 106 such that amobile unit 112 only receives the portion of the data structureassociated with the base station 106 in which range it resides.

It can be seen that the geolocation marker 116 is also on a common levelwith the mobile units 112. As will be described herein below, all of theoperations of the central unit 102, the base stations 106 and the mobileunits 112 in addition to the geolocation markers 116 are synchronous.When a packet is sent, the operation is synchronized to receiveinformation. With the 802.15.4 protocol, each packet can be sent in asynchronous manner such that the packet will be received, but somesynchronization signal needs to be received in order to synchronize theentire operation as to the position of a particular packet within thepacket stream. This synchronization signal is sent to all of the mobileunits 112 and geolocation markers 116 at the same time and, thereafter,the geolocation marker 116 will transmit its beacon to all of the mobileunits 112 within its range 118 and then turn off. Then the base stations106 will utilize that same channel thereafter to transmit information.Again, this will be described in more detail herein below.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view of the“mapping” function that is associated with the population of thedatabase in the mobile unit 112. The central unit 102 has associatedtherewith a data structure 302. This data structure 302 is comprised ofa plurality of files. These files are labeled from “A” through “Z.” Thecentral unit 102 transmits these files to the base station 106 in ablock transfer manner such that they are replicated in a data structure304 in the base station 106. The base station 106 then transmits on apacket-by-packet basis each of the files to all mobile units 112 withinits broadcast range in a broadcast mode. This data structure will thenbe replicated as the data structure 306 within the mobile unit 112. Ifthe central unit 102 needs to update the file structure, it can update asingle file in the file structure 304 or the entirety of the filestructure 304. There will be associated with each of the files an ID orversion number which ID or version number will define whether it is acurrent version or an updated version. If the mobile unit 112 determinesthat the file is already stored, i.e., the version being transmitted bythe base station 106 is already stored in the data structure 306, thedata packet is ignored.

Each of the mobile units 112 runs the same application which isassociated with the operation of the central unit 102 and the particularnetwork ID of the whole system. One application is illustrated on adisplay 310 in FIG. 3a . FIG. 3a displays a plurality of tabs 312 eachwith a different label associated with information. In this embodiment,there are three tabs labeled “sports,” “world” and “tech.” There isprovided an arrow 314 that indicates that other tabs are available bypressing thereof. Each of the tabs has a plurality of fields 318associated therewith for storing very short textual information. Thiswill be comprised of a title and an associated text. The title could bethe title of a match and the text could be a very short description ofthat match. If more detail is required, a field associated therewithillustrated by a block 320 can be opened which provides more detail tothe text in one of the fields 318. Thus, multiple fields can beprovided. What is important to note is that the entire data structure306 is stored in the mobile system 112. During operation, theapplication need only look to this data structure 306 in order todisplay all the information below a certain selected tab, select adifferent tab or pull up detailed information in the block 320, forexample. It is not necessary to go out to the web to obtain theinformation or to go back to the central unit or any other databaseremote from the mobile unit 112. Thus, the central unit 102 can populatethe entire application database for use by the user without requiring anexternal connection. Of course, there will also be a field provided ineach of the fields 318 that allows for a hyperlink to some web page viaa phone or some type of modem connection in the event that mobile unit112 is realized with a cell phone or a PDA that can access a WiFi, 3G,or 4G/LTE connection.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view of thebase station 106 and the various channels associated therewith. The basestation, as described herein above, has a processor, an 802.15.4transceiver and an Ethernet interface. On the mobile unit side utilizingthe modified 802.15.4 communication protocol and transceiver, the basestation 106 is operable to interface with up to 15 different channels.Each channel transmitting or receiving all with the same antenna 108,but with different receivers/transmitters. A channel is either dedicatedto a transmit function or a receive function. There is provided a firstchannel 402 which is a default channel. This is a transmit channel thatis utilized to transmit the sync pulse and the broadcast data. However,the data within the data structure 302 on the central unit 102 can berelayed by the base station via multiple channels. All that is importantis that, after a sync is facilitated, data is broadcast. The particularapplication on a given mobile unit can examine any of the broadcastchannels to download the data therefrom. For example, there could be anapplication that has sports information associated therewith, newsinformation associated therewith and entertainment informationassociated therewith. There could be provided three transmit orbroadcast channels, one for the news, one for the sports and one for theentertainment. The data associated with those three subjects would becontained in the data structure 302 and they would be assembled by thebase station 106 and output on the particular channels in a pseudocontinuous manner. Therefore, if the application for the particularmobile unit 112 wanted to update its news channel, it would change tothe particular transmit channel from the base station 106 associatedwith news. Further, there could be an alternate “real time” channel thatwould provide a different type of information for the application. It isjust noted that data is broadcast from the base station 106 on any oneof the transmit channels that is defined as a broadcast channel withoutrequiring any acknowledgement from the mobile unit 112. There are alsoprovided dedicated receive channels. There is a mode wherein any mobileunit can transmit a receiver request which basically is a request to thecentral unit 102 via the base station 106 to send some type ofinformation. It may request the base station 106 to send some type ofsecurity code or it may request information from the central unit 102for an interactive application. In this mode, there is provided achannel 404 that allows information to be transmitted from a particularmobile unit 115. This is a common channel to all mobile units 112 andthe request is transmitted as an “Aloha” request, meaning that therequest is sent out on the receive channel with the hopes that no othermobile unit 112 has sent out a similar request resulting in a collision.If a collision occurs, a later acknowledgement will not be received andthe data will not be received indicating to the mobile unit 112 that therequest had not been received, requiring retransmission. The basestation 106 will send back a transmit acknowledgement signal on adedicated acknowledgement channel 406. Whenever an acknowledgement issent, there is an assumption as to when data will be sent to theparticular mobile unit 112 on a broadcast channel. This receive requestchannel is a dedicated channel that will allow multiple mobile units 112to communicate a receive request with the particular base station 106,thus reducing the amount of information carried by a single channel, andthus minimizing collisions. The data that is sent from the central unitto the requesting mobile unit will be sent in a particular time “slot”within the broadcast information such that all data packets sent to aparticular mobile unit 112 or to all mobile units 112 will be sent inthe broadcast channel. By designating a particular packet as beingaddressed to a particular mobile unit 112, all other mobile units 112will reject the packet. This mobile unit 112 will then send a receiveacknowledgement signal back on the dedicated receive acknowledgementchannel 408 at the base station 106. By having dedicated receive requestchannels, receive acknowledgement channels and transmit acknowledgementchannels, the amount of information that is transferred thereon isminimal, thus minimizing the possibility of a collision. Further, sincethere will be some delay in the transmission of the data to a particularmobile unit 112, the time slot at which it will be transmitted isrequired to be known by the application running on the mobile unit 112.

Referring now to FIG. 4a , there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofthe architecture for the base station 106. A microprocessor 412comprises the heart of the base station 106. A power supply 414 willalso be associated therewith, which power supply could be batteryoperated or it could be a power supply associated with line power.Further, the system could utilize power over Ethernet (POE). An Ethernetconnection is provided through a port 416 via an Ethernet interface 418.This is a typical 10/100 Ethernet interface. Each of the receive ortransmit channels has a designated transmitter or receiver. Although theparticular controller chip associated with the microprocessor 412 couldaccommodate transceivers, it is configured to provide either a transmitfunction on one channel or a receive function and not both. Thus, thereare illustrated three transmitters 422 and three receivers 424, eachinterfaced with the antenna 108. In a particular embodiment, theintegrated circuit that provides this functionality associated with boththe transmitters, receivers and microprocessor is provided by a TexasInstruments CC2530 True System-on-chip Solution for 2.4 GHz, IEEE802.15.4 and ZigBee Applications.

Referring now to FIGS. 5a and 5b , there is illustrated a timing diagramfor illustrating how data is transmitted in the broadcast mode. There isprovided one channel in FIG. 5a for a single one of the broadcastchannels, noting that there could be multiple broadcast channels. Eachof the broadcast channels will first transmit a sync pulse 502. The syncpulse 502 is a sequence of packets of data that will be recognized as toa “type” associated with a sync pulse. Each mobile unit 112 andgeolocation marker 116 will recognize this sequence of packets as such.Once a sync pulse 502 has been received, each of the geolocation markers116 and mobile units 112 recognizes this as a trigger for thegeolocation marker 116 to generate a beacon pulse and, for the mobileunit 112, to look for a beacon pulse from the geolocation marker, i.e.,for position information. This is achieved by delaying broadcast ofinformation from the base station 106 for a period of approximately 5milliseconds. The distance between the sync pulses on a broadcastchannel is approximately 1 second. By defining a blanking window of 5milliseconds, indicated by a dotted line 504, the geolocation markers116 can each then generate a beacon pulse indicated as a pulse 506within window 504.

There are two geolocation markers 116 illustrated in FIG. 5a , GEO1 andGEO2. The geolocation marker pulse is generated on the default channel.Therefore, each of the geolocation markers has a similar structure tothe base station 106 with respect to the transceiver in that it willhave one transmitter for transmitting on the default channel and onereceiver for being able to receive on the default channel at theminimum. However, additional transmitter channels are provided forallowing the geolocation marker to transmit a data request and also toreceive an acknowledgement from the base station when the geolocationmarker is required to communicate with the base station. This will bedescribed in more detail herein below. Additionally, it should beunderstood that each of the mobile units 112 has associated receiversand transmitters to coordinate with the receive channels and transmitchannels for the base station 106.

After the 5 ms window, broadcast data is then initiated at a point 508.This data is broadcast in packets until another sync pulse 502 is to begenerated. This is a continuous process with the data continually outputin a circular buffer manner. Of course, as described herein above,additional data can be inserted into the data stream for purposes ofsending data to a particular mobile unit 112 in a point-to-pointcommunication, sending different data than is disposed within the datastructure at the central unit 102, etc. However, the original mapping ofthe data structure to the data structure in the mobile unit 112 will bedone in a circular buffer fashion on a pseudo continuous basis.

FIG. 5b illustrates the sequence of events for generating the sync pulseand the beacon pulse. The base station 106 initiates the sync pulse at apoint 510 and the sync pulse will arrive at the mobile unit 112 at apoint in time 512 and at the geolocation marker 116 at a point 514. Thepoints 512 and 514 times should be approximately the same, dependingupon how far from the base station 106 each of the devices is disposed.As soon as the geolocation marker 116 receives the sync pulse, it willprocess the sync pulse and generate the beacon pulse. Again, this beaconpulse is generated on the default channel only, whereas the sync pulseis generated on all broadcast channels. Therefore, a mobile unit 112could be listening on a broadcast channel other than the default channeland receive an indication that the sync pulse was received and then knowthat shortly thereafter, on the default channel, a beacon pulse will begenerated. The operation will typically require the mobile unit 112 toswitch over to the default channel and determine if a new beacon pulsehas been received, keeping in mind that the mobile unit 112 may not bewithin the range 118 of any geolocation marker 116. However, the beaconpulse will be transmitted at a slightly different point in time 516 fromthe point in time 514 at which the sync pulse was received due to theset up time and the slight delay. The beacon pulse will arrive at apoint 518 at the mobile unit 112 which is at a time when no data isbeing transmitted on any of the broadcast channels. The mobile unit 112will examine the default channel to determine if a beacon pulse has beenreceived and, if so, process such and, if not, return to itsapplication. In this manner, the geolocation marker 116 need only wakeup for a short period of time before the sync pulse 502 is generated,process the information, such as obtaining coordinate information as toits location, typically from memory, and then transmitting thisinformation followed by going back to sleep. An internal oscillator willrun at a very low power to provide a wake up call. The geolocationmarker 116 will typically be a battery operated system that is attachedto or associated any location that is desirable. This system could havean internal GPS for determining its coordinates but, more preferably,the coordinates are received in an upgrade message transmitted by thebase station 106. In an alternative embodiment, the coordinates areloaded into the geolocation marker 116 by a technician or the like. Thereason for this is that the geolocation marker 116 may be located insideof a building and the coordinates would have to be manually disposedtherein. However, any manner of obtaining the coordinates would beacceptable keeping in mind that low power is important. The geolocationmarkers 116 should operate for very long periods of time on smallbatteries. As previously described, the geolocation marker 116 mayfurther include solar panels to charge the batteries when sufficientsunlight is available.

Referring now to FIG. 6, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view of amobile unit 112 and its various communication layers. As withconventional communication systems, there is provided a physical layeror a (PHY) 602 and a media access control (MAC) layer 604 disposedthereover, with an application layer 606 disposed on top thereof. ThePHY 602 is operable to interface with the antenna in accordance with themodified 802.15.4 protocol. This will allow data to be received ortransmitted in accordance with that protocol. The received data willthen be transferred to the MAC layer 604 or, alternatively, data passedto the PHY layer 602 for transmission. The MAC layer 604 will examinethe various packets to determine if they should be further processed bythe application layer 606 or discarded. It essentially filters thepackets. The PHY 602 will typically be a hardware device whereas the MAC604 and the APP layer 606 can be defined in software.

Referring now to FIG. 7, there is illustrated a flow chart depicting theoperation of the MAC layer. It is initiated at a block 702 and thenproceeds to a decision block 704 to determine if a packet has beenreceived. If not, the program flows back to the input thereof. When apacket is received, the program flows along a “Y” path to a functionblock 706 to look at the Type associated with a particular receivedpacket. Each packet will have a number of fields associated therewith,the first field being the Type field. This field indicates whether thepacket is a sync pulse which requires a certain handling, a broadcastpacket of many different types or a point-to-point packet. These are allhandled differently by the application layer. If it is a sync pulse,this is determined at a decision block 708 wherein the pulse will bedirectly transferred to the application layer and then the program willreturn back to the input of decision block 704. A sync pulse indicatesto the application layer such things as the network ID, minimum versionnumbers, etc. This also indicates to the application layer the networkID. Each application, as described herein above, is associated with aparticular network and this network ID will provide an indication to theapplication layer whether it is operating on the appropriate network ID.If not, then a different application can be launched if that applicationis resident on the particular mobile unit 112. If the application is notresident on the mobile device 112, an indication can be provided to theuser to download such application from a web based host. However, if itis resident, it will be launched. In another mode, if no application isrunning, there will typically be a light application running that willdo nothing more than examine the sync pulse. When the sync pulse isreceived, then the application is launched, in conjunction with anetwork ID with the assumption that the application is resident on themobile device. For example, when a user is traveling from one city tothe next, the user will arrive at the city and turn on their mobile unit112. This mobile unit will come on and determine that a sync pulse hasoccurred whenever it enters into the transmission range 110 of a basestation 106. When this occurs, the network ID is examined and theappropriate application launched or downloaded and launched by themobile unit 112.

If the Type is not determined to be a synch, the program will flow alonga “N” path to a decision block 712 to determine if the broadcast Type isindicated. If it is a broadcast packet, the program will flow along the“Y” path to a function block 714 to examine the senders address in block714 and then flow to a decision block 716 to determine if the sendersaddress is in the list. If not, the program returns and rejects thepacket. If it is in the list, the program then flows to a function block718 to check the Type. If the type is correct, the program determines ata decision block 720 that it is acceptable. Further, with a broadcastpacket, the parameters of the packet are examined and one of theseparameters or fields indicates the packet ID for that particular packetwhich is designated for a particular location in the database. This isreviewed against previous information stored at the MAC layer and, ifthe packet is a newer version of the previous packet, it will beaccepted. If not, it will be rejected. If the packet is accepted, it isthen passed to the application layer, as indicated by the decision block722.

If a broadcast packet was not received and this is a point-to-pointpacket, the program would flow from the decision block 712 along a “N”path to a function block 724 to examine the destination address. If itis the appropriate destination address for the mobile unit 112 receivingthe packet, the program will determine at a decision block 726 to acceptthe packet and pass it along the “Y” path to an acknowledgement block728. If not, it will reject the packet. The acknowledgement block 728sends back a receive acknowledgement indication on the channel 408. Thereceive acknowledgement indication is to indicate to the central unit102 via the base station 106 that the packet has been received. Theprogram then flows to a function block 730 to process and send it to theapplication layer and then to a block 732 in order to return to decisionblock 704.

Referring now to FIG. 8, there is illustrated a simplified flow chartfor the application layer, which is initiated at a start block 802 andthen proceeds to a decision block 804 to determine whether the packetwas a broadcast packet or not. If it is a broadcast packet, the programwill flow to a function block 806 to determine the type. If it is a syncpacket (noting that “pulse” and “packet” will be used interchangeablythroughout relative to the sync operation), as indicated at decisionblock 808, the program flows along a “Y” path to process the synchpulse. In processing the sync packet, the first thing that will occur isthat it will examine the contents of the synch packet to determine ifthe correct network ID is associated therewith and, if so, it will thenproceed to switch to the default channel, if it is not already on thedefault channel, and look for the next packet being the geolocationpacket. Of course, the mobile unit 112 need only ensure that it is onthe default channel and the next packet received will be the beaconpacket from the geolocation marker 116. The reason for this is that thesystems are entirely synchronized together such that no broadcast datawill be transmitted from the base station 106 during the time the beaconpacket is transmitted and the beacon packet will not be transmittedduring the time that broadcast data is transmitted. If the sync pulsewas not received and this was data information or geolocationinformation, the program would proceed on the “N” path to function block810 to process the information packets in the broadcast data.

Referring now to FIG. 9, there is illustrated a flow chart depicting theoperation wherein a mobile request is made, i.e., the mobile unit 112sends a request for information to the base station 106. This isinitiated at a block 902. The program then proceeds to a block 904 togenerate the request and then to a block 906 to send the request. Thisrequest is sent out on the dedicated Rx RQST channel 404 which isdedicated to only receiving requests from the mobile units 112. Theseare transmitted on an “Aloha” basis which means that none of the mobileunits 112 sends the requests in a synchronized manner; that is, therequests are sent at any time and any collision of the request resultsin the request not being received. In such a case, the requests have tobe sent again at a later time.

Once a request is sent out, the mobile unit 112 will then go to anacknowledgement decision block 908 to await an acknowledgement signalback from the base station 106, and this acknowledgement signal will bereceived on a dedicated channel 406. Again, there will be very littleinformation sent on these channels but a dedicated channel keeps thebroadcast channels free. Once the acknowledgement signal has beenreceived, the programs flows along the “Y” path to a function block 910to switch to the broadcast channel to receive the data and then to adecision block 912 to wait for the information to be received. At thedecision block 912, if the time out has occurred, i.e., no response hasbeen received within the appropriate time, the program will flow along a“Y” path to request the response again in block 914. Typically, a200/500 ms time frame is allowed to receive the response. If the systemhas not timed out at the decision block 912, the program flows to afunction block 916 to receive the response and process the response andthen to a return block 918.

Referring now to FIG. 9a , there is illustrated a timing chart to showthe relative time within which requests are sent and responses arereceived. The request can be transmitted at a time 920 relative to async pulse 922. A receive window 924 is defined within which thereceiver at the mobile unit expects to receive an acknowledgement signalat a time 926. However, if the acknowledgement is not received, a secondrequest will be sent at a time 928. The acknowledgement signal merelyindicates that the request has been received. The response data,however, is sent at a much later time within the broadcast or defaultchannel at a time 930, which may be after the next sync pulse.Typically, there is some delay from the time that the data request hasbeen sent to the time that it will be received.

As described hereinabove, the physical layer operates at a 2.4 GHz bandof the 802.15.4 standard. Since the standard utilizes the ISM band, andto avoid any collision with signals from another network which will bedeployed in accordance with the 802.15.4 standard, the channel frequencyhas been redefined to modify the operation thereof. The standard orspecification defines the channel spacing as being 5 MHz. The channelspacing is maintained, but the center frequency of each channel isshifted by 2 MHz. With this shift, the number of channels is reducedfrom 16 to 15 with respect to the standard. The packet definition inaccordance with the standard is shown in FIG. 10. In FIG. 10, it can beseen that the first portion of the packet is the preamble, followed bythe start of frame delimiter. This is followed by the frame length andthen the payload. It is noted that the 802.15.4 packet is a packet thatis transmitted basically one time and the receiver is required tosynchronize with the preamble of the packet and receive the ensuingdata. With respect to FIG. 11, each of the packets in the transmissionover the transmission channels such as the default channel are separatedby inter packet spacing (IPS) which is a minimum period of time whichneeds to be blank between the two packets. The minimum IPS set forth is320 μs. The IPS is utilized to allow the receiver sufficient time toproperly set up the packet reception between two different packets,since each of the packets is transmitted with the structure set forth inFIG. 10.

As noted herein above, the distance between two synch pulses is onesecond. Since the base station 106 utilizes independent channels for theRx and Tx operations, a quick exchange of information is not possible.The slot definition is utilized to exchange information between twodifferent devices on the system, i.e., the base station 106 and a mobileunit 112. FIG. 12 illustrates the arrangement of the slots. Each syncpulse is separated from the other by one second and this time frame isdivided into 200 slots from Slot 1 to Slot 200. The first slot, Slot 1,is reserved for the synchronization packet followed by the beaconpacket.

With respect to FIG. 13, there is illustrated a more detaileddiagrammatic view of the mobile request packet and how the slots areutilized to define a receive time. Since each receiver is synchronizedwith the frame, i.e., from synchronization packet to synchronizationpacket, the receiver will date the instant of reception of each packetby using the slot number as the data or index. Thus, as each packet isreceived within a particular slot, a counter is incremented from a valueof “1” up to “200.” As noted herein above with respect to FIGS. 9 and 9a, and referring now to FIG. 13, when a mobile unit 112 or geolocationmarker 116 wants to request information from a base station 106, apacket request 1302 is transmitted on the Rx request channel 404. It isnoted that both the geolocation marker 116 and mobile units 112 all sendrequests on a common channel, as noted herein above. If the requestrequires a response, this response will be sent from the base station106 a predetermined number of slots later, 50 in the example of FIG. 13.Of course, any number of slots could be utilized. Thus, the sender ofthe request, the mobile unit 112 or the geolocation marker 116, mustenable its receiver during this timing window for a period of 10 to 15ms minimum, centered on the defined slot number in order to account forany variations in the timing. Thus, there will be a receive window 1304define which will be initiated at a time 1306 prior to the expected timeof receipt of the response packet. In this example, the request packetwas generated in slot 22 and, thus, the system would be set up toautomatically receive the response packet in slot 72. It is notnecessary for any information to be sent to the base station 106 by themobile unit 112 or geolocation marker 116 in order to define the receiveslot for the response packet as this is predetermined. The point 1306occurs in slot 72 such that it has at least one slot or more prior tothe expected reception of the response packet. Thus, the receiver willbe turned on when the response packet, defined by reference numeral1310, is received. As noted herein above with respect to FIG. 9a , ifthe response packet was not received when expected, the requestingdevice will renew its request. The geolocation marker 116 is required tominimize its power consumption. Thus, they will go to sleep for the timebetween the initiation of the request packet and the opening of thereceive window. The mobile unit 112, on the other hand, may beconstantly in the Rx mode on the particular broadcast channel and, thus,it will utilize a different timer to manage the delay. As noted hereinabove, if the mobile unit 112 is in the receive mode on another channelother than the default channel, it must utilize the internal timer toswitch to the default channel in order to receive the response.Alternatively, the response packet could be transmitted on all broadcastchannels to ensure reception.

As noted herein above, the central unit 102 has the prime responsibilityfor the selection and construction of the various packets in the datastructure and, after selected and organized in the data structure, thisdata structure is then transmitted or mapped to the base station 106 forsubsequent relay or mapping to the mobile units 112. The exchangesbetween the central unit 102 and the base stations 106 are at either amessage level or at a block level. A block is comprised of a set ofmessages disposed in a defined sequence and order whereas the message isa single message and the message level is reserved for real-timemessages. The block concept is utilized primarily to simplify thepackage storage and the queue organization at the base station 106. Thereal time packets at the message level are utilized for point-to-point(PTP) transmission. Ideally, the PTP packets are transmitted only onetime by the base station 106 and immediately acknowledged by the mobileunit 112. After the reception of an acknowledgement, the PTP packet isdiscarded by the base station 106. If the acknowledgement is notreceived, the packet is repeated up to three times and, if it has neverbeen acknowledged, an error report is sent to the central unit 102.Additionally, the real-time packets are also isolated because they willchange frequently. These packets are used to carry real-time informationlike time tables or sports scores, and the carrier information will berefreshed at a period of less than a minute.

Referring now to FIG. 14, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view of ablock which is comprised of a header 1402 and a core 1404. The block isdefined to contain a maximum of 16384 packets. The header will contain aplurality of fields. They are defined as:

-   -   Number: defined on 2 bytes giving the block number;    -   Version: 1 byte;    -   Revision: 1 byte;    -   Size: 2 bytes, give the number of packets stored in the blocks;    -   Queue: 2 bytes: queue ID to associate with the block;    -   Date: 4 bytes (day/month/year);    -   Next Tx index: 2 bytes, used to store the index of the next        packet to transmit;    -   Index table [size+sign 1]: defined on 4 bytes, gives the        relative offset of the first byte of each packet. The last index        table will be used to define the end of the last packet.

The header size will depend on the number of packets stored in theblock. The size is defined by: 2+1+1+2+2+4+2+4*(size+1)=14+4*(size+1)bytes.

The core 1404 of the block will contain the packets and will not have afixed size. The index of the first byte of the packet N is given byindex table [N], wherein the index of the last byte of the packet isgiven by index table [N+1]−1.

The real-time packets are identified by two parameters, they being thechannel and a two byte packet identifier. These packets could bediffused on more than one channel. Since 15 channels are defined, theheader will contain 2 bytes, 1 bit per channel to list the channel(s)used to transmit the packet. The packet identifier is used by the basestation 106 to store the real-time packets. The real-time packets arestored according to the identifier and, upon reception of a real-timepacket, the base station 106 will first determine if a packet with thisidentifier already exists and, if yes, the received packet will replacethe current one. If not, the received packet will be inserted in thefirst priority queue (described herein below) of the channel on which itmust be transmitted. The identifier of these packets is stored in thefirst priority queue of the channel (described herein below).

Of course, for a PTP packet, the central unit 102 will specify thechannel number on which the packet must be transmitted. In some cases,when the system is using more than one default channel, the central unit102 could not know on which channel the destination mobile unit islistening. As such, the PTP packet will be transmitted on all broadcastchannels.

In transmitting information from a base station 106 to a mobile unit112, a lot of the information will periodically be repeated. However, asthe data structure is mapped to the various mobile units 112 within thetransmission range of the base station 106, some information needs to beupdated on a more frequent basis than other information. In essence,there will be a priority associated with information. For example, PTPpackets have the highest priority since they are real-time. There areother types of packets, such as response packets to user interactivitywith the base station 106 that also will have a higher priority. Thegoal, in general, is to deliver in real-time urgent information and,with a larger delay, the information which may not be as critical. As anexample, consider a system that is deployed in Paris. Informationconcerning bicycle slots in various rental stations disposed about thecity, known as Velib stations, will be transmitted in real-time. This isnecessary so that users within the system can have relatively up to dateinformation about the availability of bicycles slots in which to parktheir rental bicycles. It may be that the update would be required to bemade once per second or once per 5 seconds, as compared to newsinformation which would only have to be updated one time per minute, forexample. To facilitate handling different priority messages, a weightedqueue is employed.

Referring now to FIG. 15, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofthe various queues. The highest priority is on the left and the lowestpriority is on the right. On the left is a PTP priority queue, followedby a first priority queue, followed by a queue 8, a queue 4, a queue 2and a queue 1 priority. Each of these queues is a first in, first out(FIFO) queue. Once the data is disposed within the queue in the form ofmessages, it is then pulled out of the queues in a predeterminedweighted order, as will be described herein below, placed into a packetand transmitted. As will be described herein below, there is asegmentation and reassembly field within each packet that defines howthe packets are to be identified and grouped upon reception.

As noted herein above, the main task of the base station 106 is totransmit on active channels the packets which have been downloaded bythe central unit. When a channel is activated, the base station 106 willtransmit continuously the packet information and will add periodically asynchronization packet which will be used for geolocation purposes,these synchronization packets disposed one second apart, as describedherein above. The synchronization packet is followed by broadcastpackets. These broadcast packets will be repeated periodically. Theperiod of repetition will depend upon the number of different packets tobe sent and on the weight of each packet in the priority queues. Thus,the packets are sent in a circular buffer type style and they are“substantially” continuous in nature. The word “substantially” isutilized to define the fact that synchronization packets are disposedwithin the broadcast stream, with a one slot delay provided after thesynchronization packet to allow the beacon to be transmitted and PTPpackets can be inserted into the data stream.

The PTP queue is a queue wherein each packet stored therein will betransmitted only once and it will be transmitted immediately, i.e., thehighest priority. This is mainly utilized to store the PTP packets.This, of course, could be repeated up to three times if anacknowledgement has not been received on the associated Rx channel. Thefirst priority queue is a queue in which packets will be sent after eachsynchronization packet. Thus, all of the packets in the first priorityqueue must be sent before other packets are sent. The remaining packetsare defined as the queue 8 priority buffer, the queue 4 priority buffer,the queue 2 priority buffer and the queue 1 priority buffer. Aftertransmission of the synchronization packet and the packet stored in thefirst priority queue and the PTP queue, the base station 106 will thensequentially send the packets stored in queue 8, queue 4, queue 2 andqueue 1. It will first send 8 packets from queue 8, then four packetsfrom queue 4, then two packets from queue 2 and then 1 packet fromqueue 1. It will then loop back around to queue 8 and send an additional8 packets from queue 8, 4 packets from queue 4, etc., until thetransmission of the next synchronization packet. It will continuecycling through these four queues. However, if additional information isstored in the PTP buffer or the first priority buffer, these will takeprecedence over the other buffers.

Referring now to FIG. 16, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofthe geolocation marker 116. As described herein above, each of thegeolocation markers is a self contained unit that is disposed at apredetermined location by some technician. It is designed to, in normaloperating mode, transmit data on the default channel 402 after receptionof the synchronization pulse and then go to a low power mode. The powerlevel during transmission in the normal operating mode is quite a bitless than the base station such that a mobile unit must be in closeproximity thereto in order to receive the beacon signal. The beaconsignal will contain location information in the form of latitude andlongitude, in the preferred embodiment. However, it could also containother information that would provide some relevance to a physicallocation. For example, it could somehow be tied to a map such as beingat some coordinate such as a hallway or the such. It could also beidentified to some type of store which could be used by an applicationto indicate thereto that the mobile unit 112 had moved in closeproximity thereto. However, in the preferred embodiment, the latitudeand the longitude is utilized. This information can either be receivedfrom a base station 106, provided by a real-time GPS (not shown in thecurrent application), or be input thereto by a technician. The GPSreceiver is undesirable from the stand point of power consumption sincethe geolocation marker 116 will be disposed in a powered downconfiguration after transmission of the beacon. The geolocation marker116 has provided therein a low power microcontroller 1602 which isbasically the same microcontroller utilized by the base station 106 andby the mobile units 112. Power is provided by a block 1604 that can beprovided by a battery 1608 or a solar panel 1610 or a combination ofboth. A memory 1612 is provided which basically is a flash memory thatis part of the microcontroller chip 1602. The self contained chip alsohas a transmitter 1614 and a receiver 1616 that are both interfaced withan antenna 1618. The microcontroller 1602 and the transmitter andreceiver are configured by the initial configuration information tooperate on the default channel.

In general, the geolocation marker 116 will be disposed in manydifferent areas within the broadcast range of a given base station 106.It could be disposed at specific places in a town, an attraction park, amall, an airport, etc. This will assist the user to localize the mobileunit 112 for the purposes of interfacing with the applications runningon the mobile unit 112.

This geolocation marker 116 is operable to transmit the geolocationpacket, i.e., the beacon, with a limited power, such that only themobile unit 112 present in the small area 118 proximate to thegeolocation marker 116 will be able to receive the packet. The radius ofthis transmission could be in the order of 10 or 20 meters.

Referring now to FIG. 17, there is illustrated a flow chart depictingthe operation of the geolocation marker 116, which is initiated at ablock 1702 and then proceeds to a decision block 1704 to determine ifthe internal timer has indicated that the receiver should be turned onto receive the next synchronization packet. Until the timer has timedout, the program will return back to the input of the decision block1704 to maintain the microcontroller in a powered down state. When thetimer triggers, the program flows along the “Y” path from the decisionblock 1704 to a function block 1706 to wake up the receiver and then toa decision block 1708 to await the sync pulse. This will loop backaround to itself until the sync pulse is received. If the sync pulse isnot received within one or two seconds or even less, this will cause thegeolocation marker 116 to go into a mode where it will increase itspower and send a request to the nearest base station 106 indicating thatthere is a problem. The base station 106 can identify this geolocationmarker 116 and take the appropriate actions. However, when the syncpulse is received, the program will flow along the “Y” path from thedecision block 1708 to a decision block 1710 to determine if a commandcontrol field has been set to the appropriate bit within the sync pulse.This command control packet will place the geolocation marker 116 into adifferent mode than the normal mode of generating a beacon. If a commandcontrol signal has not been received in the appropriate field, theprogram will flow along a “N” path to a function block 1712 to send thebeacon within the first time slot and then to a function block 1714 togo back to sleep. The timer at that time is reset to wake the next onesecond wake up call for the next sync pulse. The program then returnsback to the input of the decision block 1704.

If the command control field indicated there were some necessaryinformation to be obtained from the geolocation marker 116, such asstatus information, the program will flow along the “Y” path from thedecision block 1710 to a function block 1716 to increase the power leveland then to a function block 1718 to send a request for transmission ofa packet and then to a function block 1720 to service the request. Thisis very similar to the operation of sending a message from a mobile unit112, as described herein above with respect to FIGS. 9 and 9 a.

The messages for being transmitted from the base station 106 to themobile unit 112 are classified into two types of packets, broadcastpackets and point-to-point (PTP) packets. The PTP packet withacknowledgement will contain the channel number on which theacknowledgement will be sent. This allows the mobile unit 112 to switchto the appropriate channel for listing. However, it could be that thePTP packet could be transmitted on all channels as data is broadcast onthose channels, but this is not the most efficient manner of operating.

For broadcast channels, as described herein above, they are utilized totransmit sports news, local news, world news, etc., local advertisementsuch as coupons and discounts with web links, a list of points ofinterest that are present in a particular area, news or services fromthe particular locale or city, cinema and theater programs, etc. Ingeneral, it is any type of information that would normally be disposedin some type of data structure or organization to be accessible via auser interface such as a touch display or the like. This interface wasdescribed above with respect to FIG. 3. Returning back to FIG. 3, themanner in which the packets are formatted for this information will bedescribed.

The packet format for the broadcast packet and the display of FIG. 3 aredisposed in a multi-level organization scheme. The first level is thepage number. The page number defines a tab. In the illustratedembodiment of FIG. 3a , tab 312 associated with “sports” would be page0. The second page, page 1, would be the “world” tab. The third page,page 2, would be the tab labeled “tech.” Within each page, the secondtier defines lines within a page and each line has multiple levels ofinformation associated therewith. The first line of a page, line “0,” isassociated with the tab and this is followed by additional lines, lines1-63, for each different news item. For the first line of the page, thetab information, it will have the first level of information as thetitle of the tab. For a tab, only a single level of information isrequired. This allows the line number “0” to be reserved for the tabname and the numbers 1 through 63 to be reserved for the multiple levelsof information associated with the received messages, i.e., the varioustiles 318, wherein a tile is an area below a tab, each containing amessage. If there are, for example, 20 messages that are to beassociated with a particular tab—particular page—there will be 20 tiles318 provided, each tile having a message disposed therein. Each of thesemessages or tiles 318 are defined by a line in the page. Thus, for page0 associated with the “sports” tab, the message coded on the 1 bytefield would have the title of the tab associated with the number “0”message (or line “0” message) and for the remaining messages or linesfrom 1 through 63, the different tiles 318 would have the correctmessage associated therewith. For example, in message “1” the tile 318labeled “title 1” in FIG. 3a would have the message associatedtherewith. The core of the message could be transmitted using more thanone packet, using a segmentation and reassembly process. The MSB of thisbyte will be used to store the level of this message, i.e., the linenumber within the page.

The level concept is defined by providing three levels “0, 1 and 2” ofinformation All of the “level 0” messages for a single page will bedisplayed in association with the associated tab within the definedtiles 318, one tile for each message or line/message number. Thus,information associated with level “0” for a particular message or linenumber would be utilized to populate the respective tile 318. The tile318 is for displaying level “0” information. For example, text 1 fortitle 1 are disposed in one of the illustrated tiles 318 and thisbasically constitutes a summary of the information for a particularmessage under that particular tab. Associated with that same messagelabeled title 1 would be more detailed information, as illustrated inthe block 320. This is transmitted as level 1 information. Level 2information would be used to transmit a web link that can be associatedwith the message. Thus, a single tile or region 318 on a display can beassociated with information using the three levels such that theabbreviated form of a news article, for example, would be provided aslevel “1” information. For example, this could be text that would state“Bolt wins 109.86 at Skorean Meeting—AP Usain Bolt won the 100 meters in9.86 seconds in his season debut at the Daegu meet on Wednesday.Jamaica's Usain Bolt celebrates . . . ” This will be all the informationthat will be displayed in the tile or region 318 on the display-level“0” information. When going to level 1, the detailed information wouldbe jumped to at the detail box 320. A web link could also be provided inconjunction therewith if such were necessary. The level is coded on 2bits and there may be a level 3 or more reserved for future extensions.

Some version/revision field will be present in the message for use bythe application to refresh the information displayed on the tab, i.e.,if information is repeatedly sent, there is no need to refresh theinformation if it is already stored. If the version/revision fieldchanges, this indicates that the information in the database should bereplaced.

Referring now to FIG. 18, there is illustrated the packet format for thepacket associated with a level 0 message number 0 associated with thetitle of a tab. As noted herein above, this is for message number 0 forthe given page at level 0, as the tab has only level 0 informationassociated therewith. The packet has a plurality of fields definedtherein. The first field is a Type field, which is one byte in length.This will provide for 256 types such as the SYNC Type, the geolocationtype, news type, sports type, etc. There are many different types thatcould be provided. The next field is the Page field which provides a tabID for this particular level 0 message. This is the page number. Asnoted herein above, each tab will have a separate page associatedtherewith. The next field is a version field which defines the currentversion of the packet. This version information is maintained in the MAClayer of the logical stack in the receiver and will be utilized todetermine whether to discard the packet or not. If it matches a versionof the existing packet stored on the mobile device 112, the packet willbe discarded. The next field is the level/number field. The leveldetermines whether it is a level 0, level 1 or level 2 packet which, forthe tab packet, is restricted to level 0 information. The number portiondetermines what number message it is at that level. For the tab, thiswould be a level 0, number 0 (for the first line in the page), as thetab only has a single level of information associated therewith. Forother message numbers at level 0, i.e., messages 1-63 for a given page,they would have other levels. For example, the first tile or region 318for the given tab (page) would have a level 0, number 1 associated withthe information in the level/number field, as only level 0 informationis displayed in the tile or region 318. The next field is thesegmentation and reassembly field (SAR). This is the field that isutilized to handle multi-packet transmission. Since the maximuminformation that can be carried in a message is around 100 bytes, thiswould be insufficient when a message is a news report with detail or afile. To work within these constraints, it is necessary to provide somesegmentation and reassembly functionality such that multiple packets canbe utilized to send the message but they can be sent at different timesand mixed in with different packets and later separated and assembled inthe correct sequence. There will be provided 2 bytes reserved for thisfunction. 14 bits are for a packet number and 2 bits are for thecontrol. The control bits are the two MSBs. A “00” is the “first packet”definition, i.e., defining the packet as being the first packet in thetransmission. The control bits “01” will define the packet as being allother packets except the first or the last packet. The bits “10” are notused and the bits “11” indicate that it is the last packet in theassembly. The first packet, indicated by the control code “0” will beassociated with the number of packets which will be used to send theinformation. If, for example, it is assumed that a packet can carry 100bytes, with this coding rule, one can transmit a file up to16383*100=1.56 Mbytes. All packets must have a fixed size which will bea maximum packet size, with the exception of the last one. Thisconstraint will permit the receiver to store the received packet, evenif one packet is missing. If, for example, there were a message with alength of 400 bytes, this would require 4 packets. The first packet isknown to be the first packet since the 2 MSBs are set to “00.” Thus, thenumber of packets in the entire message can be coded within the packetnumber for that the first packet. It is not necessary to put all “0s” inthe packet number field, i.e., the 14 bit field and, for the last threeLSBs, the bits will be coded as “100” defining the total number ofpackets as 4. Thereafter, each subsequent packet will have a number from“1,” “2” and “3” since there are only four packets in the entiremessage. After the SAR, the message field for the title will be providedlabeled “Title” followed by an “Option” field. The Title field can befit within the 100 byte message length, as it is relatively short. Theoption field could be provided for such things as the color of thetitle. The Type field, Page field, Version field, Level/Number field andSAR field comprise the header of the message packet.

Referring now to FIG. 19, there is illustrated the packet format for theweb link, the level 2 link. This is a link that provides a web addressfor some hyperlink that can be utilized by the program. This could beinterfaced with the application running on a mobile unit 112 such thatthe mobile unit 112 could utilize this link to access an outside systemon the network via a WiFi, 3G, 4G/LTE or other communication link to thenetwork. This would be included within a string of data.

Referring now to FIG. 20, there is illustrated a detail of the messagepacket at level 0 (also descriptive of the message packet at level 1)wherein the number is greater than 0 defining a message packet for otherthan the tab title packet, since number 0 for a given page is associatedwith the tab. For the message, there are provided 4 strings after theheader. The first string is considered to be the title of the entry,i.e., the title of the sporting event. This would be displayed in apredetermined color such as blue. The second string would be the messagecore and it will be displayed in black in one example. The last twostrings are the message source and date, respectively. They would bedisplayed in a different color such as green. Each of the 4 strings areseparated by an ASCII code “0.” Thus, the end of each string would havethe bits “0000.” This would indicate the end of a string.

When a packet is longer than 100 bytes, as noted herein above withrespect to the description of SAR, a multi packet transmission must beassembled. Each of these has the same header to identify the packetexcept that the SAR field changes for each packet in the segmentationsequence. The first packet will constitute the “00” SAR packet with thenumber of packets in the total packet being defined, there being 4 inthis particular example. This first packet would have part of string 1associated therewith, as illustrated in FIG. 20a , and the second packetwould have the remaining part of string 1 and part of string 2associated therewith. This, of course, depends on the amount ofinformation contained in a particular string. This is illustrated inFIG. 20b . The third packet has more of string 2 disposed therein, asillustrated in FIG. 20c . FIG. 20d shows the fourth packet whichcontains the remainder of string 2 and also all of string 3 and string4. It is noted that the core of the message associated with string 2required part of the second packet, all of the third packet and part ofthe fourth packet to contain the message. There could be multiplepackets, of course, depending upon the size of the message. If a picturewere required to be attached to the message, a fifth string could beaccommodated which would contain a name of a file where an associatedpicture is stored. This picture would be transmitted in association withthe data structure in a file transfer Type packet that was transferredon a broadcast channel.

Referring now to FIG. 21, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofthe message packet for the detailed information at level 1 for theparticular message. The detailed information is limited to a uniquestring that would be transmitted by utilizing the header and thenfollowed by the string. One string would be acceptable, as a title, dateand time are not required. If the string is greater than 100 bytes, thena multi-packet transmission would be required, as was the case withrespect to the embodiment of FIGS. 20a-20d associated with the messageat level 0.

Referring now to FIG. 22, there is illustrated a packet format for thesync packet. This packet contains various information. In the Typefield, the first field, the type is indicated as being the SYNC type.The next field is the geolocation control field which is utilized by thegeolocation marker 119 to determine whether any action needs to betaken. This field is ignored by the mobile units 112. This is an 8 bitfield with the first two MSBs associated with management. A “00”indicates no report is necessary and all geolocation markers ignore thisfield. A “01” is a status report request which requests a geolocationmarker 116 to send a status report. If this is received and recognizedby a geolocation marker 116, that geolocation marker 116 will then powerup to full power and transmit a message on the Rx RQST channel 404 tothe base station 106. The next management command is a “10” that willindicate that the geolocation marker 116 needs to go into a softwareupgrade procedure and upgrade itself. This means that the receiver muststay on and receive data and perform the upgrade procedure from the basestation 106. The next command for the management bits is the “11” bitwhich indicates that a message update will be sent, a new encryption keyis to be sent or other information. These two management bits, if theyare not “00” are followed by a 6 bit geolocation marker ID. This ID isutilized to identify which of the geolocation markers the bits aredirected toward. The next field is the key version field which isutilized for a security aspect and the next field, the name field, isfor the display properties to allow the name of a network to bedisplayed. The next field is the network ID field which will be used bythe application running on the mobile unit 112 is the correctapplication for that network ID in order to guarantee that the packetformats are the correct ones. When a mobile unit 112 enters a particularnetwork, it looks at the network ID and compares it with itsapplication. If the network ID matches, then the appropriate applicationis running. However, if the network ID does not match, then it possiblycan launch another application which already resides on the mobile unit112. Typically, a very light application will be running to search for async pulse and, when received, the network ID will be compared to theapplication running and, if it matches, the full application will belaunched. If it requires another application, and that application isresident on the mobile unit 112, then the mobile unit 112 will launchthat application. If not, then a pop-up will be received indicating tothe user that they need to go to the web or some other network todownload another version of the appropriate application associated withthat network ID. The next field will be a minimum version field and thisminimum version field will be provided such that the user of theapplication can determine whether it can decode all of the packets. Ifthe user has a software version that is too old, another pop-up box willbe displayed to invite the user to upgrade the software

Referring now to FIG. 23, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofthe packet format for the beacon transmitted by the geolocation marker116. There is a Type field that indicates this as being associated withthe beacon followed by the latitude and the longitude information. Thisstep requires two fields. A last field is provided for the name of thegeolocation marker 116.

As described herein above, the data in an application can be arranged inmany different ways. By defining types of packets, the data can beorganized into various groups. For example, the description herein abovewith respect to the news broadcast associated with the packets of FIGS.18-21 will be utilized to populate the table of FIG. 3. However, thereare other applications that can require a different packet format inorder to populate the various tables. By defining these packets by type,they can be arranged in the data structure such that, when theapplication wants to populate an area of display, it merely has toextract that information from a particular place in the data structure.

Another type of broadcast packet is an array broadcast. An arraybroadcast utilizes a format for transmitting live information such assports results, stock quotes, movie times and the such to the mobileunits. Of course, the timeliness of the information is a function ofwhat kind of priority it is assigned within the system. When informationis transmitted in a form that lends itself to an array format such as atable, a different format is utilized. This is illustrated in FIG. 24.The table illustrated therein illustrates a plurality of tabs 2402associated with a particular functionality, in this example a sportingtable. The sporting table is associated with various sporting eventssuch as baseball, football, basketball and hockey. The first tab 2402 islabeled “MLB” for Major League Baseball. As was the case with the news,each of the tabs is associated with a page number. The level notion isutilized to populate the information relative to a tab. Thus, level 0,line or number 0 will be utilized to send the tab, title and displayoptions and, at the same time, the size of the array, the number of rowsand the number of columns. At level 0, from lines 1 to 63, the contentfor a particular line will be sent and each of these at level 0 willconstitute a row of an array. The next level, level 1, will providedetailed information for a row. For example, if an array is used todisplay baseball results, the table information may be, as illustrated,one column for the home team, one column for the away team and theirassociated scores, one column for the inning and other columns for otheraspects regarding the action. The first row could be an actual headingrow but this would just be a row that is populated for this information.The first row illustrates the “home,” “away” and “inning” information.The subsequent rows provide in, for example, the home team column, thethree letter abbreviation for the team and its score. When any row isselected for detailed information, this will provide another box thatwill open, preferably to fill the entire screen and to find box scoresin a block 2408 and a web link in a block 2410. The web link will beprovided by level 2 information. The packet for the title in the tabwill set forth the header, as described herein above with respect to allof the packets, the number of rows in an associated field, the number ofcolumns in the next field, the title in the next field and the optionsfor the tab such as color, in the last field, as illustrated in FIG. 24a. This is similar to the news operation. FIG. 24b illustrates the otherlines for a given page after line “0” for the tab. This will set forth aplurality of strings after the header. Each of these strings define theinformation in the column. For example, string C1 in line or number 1would be the word “home.” String C2 would be “away.” For the second lineor number, string C1 would be the text “TEX 2” for the team and thescore All that is required in order to update this information is forthe central unit to send out the information to the base station forrelaying in its data structure transmission each time it repeats thedata structure. In this manner, the table can be continually populated.This table is a high priority table. It is not a data structure that isloaded into the data structure of the mobile unit 112, as was the casewith the news information which is not as time sensitive. This tableinformation is the highest priority data after the PTP packets. When thetable is selected from an option associated with the runningapplication, the application will the “grab” the appropriate informationfrom the data stream on the default broadcast channel. This data isupdated every minute or so. Thus, as the new data is generated, it isput out on the broadcast channel and then immediately displayed. It isnot necessary to store this data, as retrieving this data from localmemory makes no sense. When new data occurs, it will always have a newversion and will be accepted and used to update the associated row atlevel 0.

Referring now to FIG. 25, there is illustrated an alternate operationwherein the table is utilized for sending information about movies. Thisoperates in a similar manner in that there are provided a plurality oftabs 2502 that are associated with a cinema and, under that cinema wouldbe provided a plurality of rows and columns wherein each row woulddefine a header for defining each of the columns and the subsequent oneswould provide the information for that column such as the movie title,the time, the length and the rating. As with the sports array, a detailblock 2506 could be output. There would be associated title and rowpackets similar to FIGS. 24a and 24 b.

Referring now to FIGS. 26a, 26b and 26c , there is illustrated a detailof the transmission of a file packet. This type of packet is a broadcastpacket and is utilized to download a file that will be stored by thereceiver in the file system. These files could contain a picture or anicon to illustrate the display. They will be stored in a commontemporary directory to be shared by various applications. In general,the packet format will be comprised by two fields after the header. Thefirst will give the file name and the second will be binary informationto store in the file, i.e., the file content. The illustration in FIGS.26a-26c illustrate the use of segmentation since multiple packets willbe required to send a file. An end of string ASCII character will beutilized such as 0x00.

Another type of application would be that utilized to transmit anadvertisement to a mobile unit 112. In general, this advertisement wouldbe defined by the type field in the header and, thereafter, theinformation would be stored accordingly. Such advertisements would beutilized in areas such as towns, malls or in airports. Each of theadvertisements needs to be filtered and classified. To facilitate this,each advertisement pack will contain a rubric. It will also contain suchthings as coordinates of the shop in order to display a marker on a map.The level notion is utilized for organization purposes mainly to definethat the advertisement is comprised at level 0 of a short summary of theadvertisement with the second level 1 providing a detail of theadvertisement and the last level 2 providing some type of web link.However, there is no reason to utilize the concept of pages but, forfiltering purposes, all of the advertising packets will be organized inpages, such that one page might be advertisements associated with newsformat, one for sporting events, one for restaurants, etc. Thisbasically provides a way to sort the advertisements by types ofadvertisements, for example, one page could be dedicated for use justfor coupons.

The main advertisement which is associated with level 0 for theadvertisement would be associated with the line number or message numberfrom 1 through 63 which, with message “0” reserved for the tab title,i.e., “coupons.” The information associated with the main advertisementwould be comprised of a plurality of fields after the header. Thesefields would contain the following information:

-   -   Field 1—main rubric, i.e., hotel/motel, restaurant, housewares,        personal attire (clothing, shoes), cosmetics, supermarket, . . .        ;    -   Field 2—sub-rubric: utilized to provide a finer grain of        classification which could be coded in 1 byte with 2 bits        provided for the level of a restaurant, for example, i.e., low        cost, basic, normal, luxury;    -   Field 3—geolocation information in the form of latitude and        longitude in 2 bytes;    -   Field 4—shop name;    -   Field 5—address;    -   Field 6—phone number; and    -   Field 7—a short summary of the offer.

All of this information is not necessary to display the information. Itcan be utilized for different aspects. For example, the geolocationinformation could be utilized to locate the restaurant or advertisingentity on the map. The rubrics could be utilized to define an icon, forexample. If it were a hotel or a restaurant, a predefined icon could beutilized on the map. Further, if it were a quality restaurant, aparticular type of rating such as four stars, could be associated withthe advertisement. As with the other packet information described hereinabove, the detailed information is level 1 information that can beprovided with the header followed by a string with detailed information.This is the same with respect to associated web link information atlevel 2.

Referring now to FIG. 27, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofhow the advertisement is associated with a display. In thisillustration, there is provided a map on a display 2702. This map iscomprised of a plurality of buildings and the such. For illustrativepurposes, this map on the display 2702 defines a certain area that canbe viewed. There are provided a plurality of “x's” that are associatedwith geolocation markers. These geolocation markers would not beindicated on the actual map on the display. However, it can be seen thatthe geolocation markers are disposed at corners of various roads and thesuch. There is one building 2704 that has associated therewith anadvertisement. When an individual passes by a geolocation marker 2706,for example, this could trigger the display of an advertisement that hadbeen previously downloaded. What will happen is that the advertisementwill pop-up in a “bubble” 2710 and provide information as to someproduct or service that is being advertised by that particular location.An icon will be disposed on the map associated with that location thatis defined by various information stored in the application. When thisadvertisement pops up, the user is then allowed to expand this foradditional detailed information.

The ad is illustrated in FIG. 27a and this shows the various informationthat would be provided. Typically, what would be provided is the name ofthe store and a summary of the services. This is the title of therestaurant and the information regarding what types of menu it offersand entertainment. The longitude and latitude would not be displayedbut, rather, utilized to place the ad onto the map. The geolocationmarker itself could be utilized by the application to recognize that themobile unit 112 had passed by the proximity of the store and, with astraightforward comparison, recognize that an advertisement associatedwith some vendor is to be displayed proximate to that longitude andlatitude. The latitude and longitude associated with the advertisementwould then be utilized to place the advertisement upon the map in aparticular area. The detail is illustrated in an expanded box showingthe detailed advertisement and the web link.

In another application referred to as virtual queuing, the system isutilized to allow a recreational park having a large number ofattractions to be managed. In general, people roam around a theme parkand go from one attraction to another. All of these attractions havesome type of queue, depending upon the popularity of that attraction. Aproblem exists when a large number of people want to go to oneattraction versus another. If the manager of the park could somehowcreate a virtual queue such that they could define a “slot” that in turndefines a time at which a particular visitor to the park could visitthat attraction in order to jump into the middle of the queue, thatwould be desirable. By creating a virtual queue, that is possible. Thiswill both reduce the amount of time waiting in the actual queue and thusincreasing the amount of time that the visitor may spend at variousvendor sites associated with bars, restaurants and the such.

In order to facilitate the virtual queue with the system of the presentdisclosure, an interface must be made between the central unit 102 andthe mobile units 112. The first interface is a broadcast interface thatdefines the number of attractions in the parks. Each of the attractionsis provided an ID, a name and a position. A second broadcast packagewill be provided that will give detail on each attraction, such as theopen and close hours, the current waiting time, etc. This is a real-timebroadcast that must be kept up to data in order to provide vitalinformation to a visitor. Third, an interactive session must be providedbetween the visitor with their mobile unit 112 and the central unit 102.The central unit 102 will then communicate with the vendor or attractionmanagement. This requires a request message from the mobile unit 112 tobe sent to the central unit 102 requesting a position in the queue for aparticular attraction and a response then provided back to the mobileunit 112 in order to book the visitor of the time slot for the virtualqueue. Thus, the visitor can book a reservation, cancel a reservationand request status of the reservation. Once the request has been sentout to the central unit 102, then an acknowledgment will be providedfrom the central unit confirming the slot in the queue.

Referring now to FIG. 28, there is illustrated a flow chart depictingthe virtual queue operation. The application is initiated at a block2802 and then proceeds to a function block 2804 in order to indicate theoperation wherein a visitor to the park will purchase a validated ticketupon entering the theme park. Each user will be given a ticket with avalidated number. This ticket allows the user access to all attractionswithin the park. Of course, sometimes different tickets will be providedfor different levels of access. Once the ticket is received, thevisitor, being in possession of a mobile unit 112, has the option tolaunch their application on the mobile unit 112. Once the application islaunched, it will seek to access the base stations 106 associated withthat theme park. Typically, a theme park will have its own set of basestations 106 and, as such, its own network ID. Therefore, theapplication will be unique to that network ID. Once launched, the userwill be prompted to input their ticket or possibly multiple ticketsassociated with different family members. All of these validationnumbers can be input to the system. This is indicated at a functionblock 2806. The program then flows to a function block 2810 wherein thevisitor can review the various attractions that have been downloaded asa result of the application running on the visitor's mobile unit. Eachof these attractions will have the title of the attraction and variousreal-time status information associated with that attraction, such aswhether it is active or inactive, the opening time and closing time andthe waiting time. The user can decide whether they want to select a timeslot to enter the queue, i.e., if they want to go to the attraction,they would like to know when they can go and be placed into a shortqueue. This is a decision made at block 2812. Once the user has selectedthe queue, i.e., the user has checked a box, selected how many peoplethey want to be in the queue, etc. A request is then sent out to thecentral unit 102 via the base station 106, as indicated by a block 2814.This request is handled by the central unit 102, which as describedherein above, requires the base station 106 to send back anacknowledgement signal indicating that the request was received followedby the transmission of a response from the central unit 102 a finitetime later in the broadcast stream. This is indicated at a decisionblock 2816 wherein a response is determined to have been received. Oncethe response has been received, this will inform the user as to when theuser can visit the attraction. The user then has the option topositively accept the time slot at the attraction and, if not, anotherrequest will be sent out. The central unit 102 has to have theintelligence to recognize that it must lengthen the time, i.e., placethem into a later slot. This is decided at decision block 2818. Theprogram, after accepting, then flows to a decision block 2820 wherein areminder sent to the mobile unit 112 at a later time, i.e., thisreminder could merely remind the user of a certain proximity in time totheir designated queue time. The program then flows to a function block2822 wherein the user goes to the attraction and then to a functionblock 2824 where the user presents their ticket to the person runningthe attraction, which ticket is then scanned to indicate that they arein the valid group for that particular queue. Typically, they will havepossibly two lines, one for the virtual queue and one for the “walk ups”such that a more expedited handling of the traffic can be accommodatedin the virtual queue versus the non virtual queue. When they areaccepted into the virtual queue group, i.e., they showed up at thespecified time, then they will be allowed to enter that queue. This willsignificantly reduce the amount of time that the individual has to sitin the queue. Additionally, the central unit 102 can inform the user asto any delays that may occur for mechanical problems and the such. Ifthe user decides that the delay is too much or if they decide that theiroriginal queue slot would be missed, they have the option of cancelingthat scheduled slot.

Referring now to FIG. 29, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofthe display associated with an example of the virtual queue that wouldbe provided to the user. Initially, the user, after launching theapplication, would be provided with a populated table displaying all ofthe attractions. They would define such things as the name of theattraction, A1, A2, A3, A4, for example, followed by the status of thatattraction, active or inactive, the delay in the queue for walk ups, abox for a scheduled delay if such were scheduled for a user, the numberof persons if scheduled and also the number of the group number in whichthey are scheduled. On the far right would be a column that would show abox for selecting the attraction. If the user desired to placethemselves into a queue, they would select that box that wouldautomatically send a request. Upon the request being confirmed, i.e., aslot being assigned by the attraction via the central unit 102, thenthis box would change its status to be filled in. In order for all ofthis to be facilitated, the manager of each attraction would have to beconnected to the central unit 102 in order to receive in real-time theinformation from the user and to provide information thereto.

The first packet is illustrated in FIG. 29a . This packet will containfields associated with a number of attractions after the type, theversion and SAR fields. The attraction number will define how manyattractions there are. This will require segmentation if there are anumber of attractions. There are illustrated a plurality of packetswhich go all the way up to attraction An from A1. Each of the attractionfields will have associated therewith an attraction ID, thealpha-numeric name of the attraction and geolocation information in theform of the latitude and longitude. Since the geolocation of the packetis a fixed parameter that needs only be stored in the receiver once,there need be no dynamic information associated therewith. This can beutilized for interfacing with a map of a theme park, for example, toshow where the attraction is. It may be that one field is the locationon the display which could be selected to jump to a map of the themepark to show where the attraction is. The ID of the attraction isutilized to relate a particular selection to the user ID for creatingthe interactive communication between the mobile unit 112 and thecentral unit 102. In general, the version number will be maintainedbecause the architecture of the park seldom changes after it isconstrued. Since the version doesn't change, new packets that are beingconstantly downloaded for new mobile units entering the system will bediscarded by the system that has been constructed.

The attraction detail is a broadcast packet that is illustrated in FIG.30. This is a dynamic packet that provides such things as the attractionstatus, whether it is open, closed, unavailable, etc. and also thevirtual queue size in minutes, i.e., the waiting time. This is arelatively short packet and will probably not require segmentation.However, the version of this packet may change each minute—a firstpriority packet. In order to avoid confusion, the version will be codedon 2 bytes so as to have a unique version per day. The reception of thispacket provides relevant information regarding the time that aparticular visitor can wander around the park. To avoid this byte havingthe wrong information, the mobile unit 112 will manage the display toensure that it has been updated. If a new version of the packet has notbeen received within 5 minutes, there is a timer on the mobile unit 112that will cause a display to change to indicate to the user that thedisplay information is incorrect. Thus, there is a requirement that anew packet be received at least once every 5 minutes for the attraction.Thus, at least once every 5 minutes, the manager of the attraction mustoutput an update of the status information to the central unit 102 whichwill then place this into the database for transmission out to all ofthe mobile units 112. Each time a new version is received, it will beaccepted by the MAC and the timer will be reset. (This is also requiredfor the tables application described hereinabove.) By knowing the ID,the status information and waiting time information can be placed in theappropriate location in the display.

FIG. 31 illustrates the request packet which is a PTP packet. Theinformation that is carried in this packet is the sender ID which is thesource address of the packet, i.e., the ID of the mobile unit 112, theattraction ID that is selected, a demand type which is the informationregarding a booking request, a cancel request, a status request andother requests that may be associated therewith. A field is provided forthe number of people that are to be associated with the request and theID for each person associated therewith. This is basically the ticket IDthat was given to the visitor when they entered the park for all of theassociated people. Upon reception of this demand, the central unit 102will send a response packet as described herein above. This responsepacket will provide an indication to the user as to whether they wereaccepted and what time they are allowed to come.

Referring now to FIG. 32, there is illustrated the packet format for theresponse packet from the central unit 102. This can be utilized toindicate to the user that they have been accepted and what time slotthey are in, it can be provided to update the user's information in theevent that an earlier time is available or there is a delay or just toprovide a reminder to the user, i.e., that their slot is only twominutes away or the such. Information that is disposed in the packet isthe sender ID, the destination address of the packet, the attraction ID,the group number which is the number associated with the particulargroup queue that the users are disposed in, the time of the group slot,i.e., the date and the time of the day, the number of people associatedwith that queue and the ID for each of the people.

Referring now to FIG. 33, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofthe mobile unit 112. The mobile unit 112 in this embodiment is comprisedof a cell phone or PDA. The PDA has associated therewith a display 3302and an input keyboard 3304. This display 3302 could be a touch screendisplay to allow the user to interface therewith. In the disclosedembodiment, there are provided multiple radios on the PDA. This isconventional. Typically, most PDAs have multiple bands such as CDMA andGSM capabilities. They also provide for a WiFi access an also forBluetooth access to interface with such things as headsets. There is anadditional radio provided having an antenna 3306 associated therewith.This provides the modified 802.15.4 communication capability. This is aseparate broadcast channel. However, it should be understood that thisstandard is only utilized in this example. Any radio that is capable ofbroadcasting and functioning in the manner described herein above withmultiple channels and the such could be utilized. Even if the systemwere in a broadcast mode, the separate broadcast could be utilized. Thedisclosed embodiment utilizes a separate radio that can be eitherintegrated into the phone when the phone is manufactured, made a part ofan SD card that can be inserted in an SD slot or it can be connected viaan external connector, such as a USB connector wherein the radio wouldbe disposed on a USB dongle. The diagrammatic structure of this isillustrated in FIG. 34 wherein there is provided a central CPU 3402 withan I/O 3404 and a display 3408. There is provided the cell phone aspect3410 which allows the mobile unit 112 to interface with the internet andvarious telecommunication systems. There is also provided a radio 3412which provides the communication aspects for the system as describedherein to communicate with the base station 106.

In another application, a museum may be provided with base stations 106in one or more rooms of the museum that transmit text and pictureinformation for individual exhibits for the entire museum. In aparticular embodiment, information in different languages may betransmitted on different channels. A visitor may download a simpleapplication to his or her mobile unit 112 that includes a map of themuseum including all rooms. Each base station 106 may transmitlocalization information, or alternately, each room may include ageolocation marker 116 that transmits localization information, whichwill be used by the mobile unit 112 to place a point on the map. Theuser of the mobile unit 112 can then zoom in one the room and haveaccess to all of the detail on artists and exhibits in the room. By notincluding the detailed information in the application itself, the museummay rearrange exhibits and add and remove temporary exhibits within themuseum without requiring creation of and downloading of a new version ofthe application.

In another application, an airport may be provided with base stations106 and geolocation markers 116. This may be used to provide informationto users of mobile units 112 which they are located within the airport.The information provided may include departure time-tables and gates,arrival time-tables and gates, expected transit time at security,real-time information updates, airport terminal maps and geolocationservices, ground transportation information, advertising for duty-freeshops, advertising for luxury brands, etc. An advantage of thisapplication is that geolocation services can be provided within theairport even if a GPS signal cannot be received by the mobile unit 112while indoors.

In still another application, a shopping mall may be provided with basestations 106 and geolocation markers 116 to provide information to usersof mobile units 112 such as maps of the shopping mall, childrengeolocation and monitoring, a shopping search engine, advertisements forbrands or shops, etc.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art having the benefit ofthis disclosure that this urban mobile network system provides a lowbandwidth system and method for providing information such as localizedinformation to a number of mobile units in a particular area. It shouldbe understood that the drawings and detailed description herein are tobe regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive manner, and arenot intended to be limiting to the particular forms and examplesdisclosed. On the contrary, included are any further modifications,changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices,and embodiments apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope hereof, as defined by the followingclaims. Thus, it is intended that the following claims be interpreted toembrace all such further modifications, changes, rearrangements,substitutions, alternatives, design choices, and embodiments.

1. A mobile network system comprising: a central unit having: a databasehaving stored therein a data structure; and a central unitcommunications transceiver for communicating with a first network; atleast one intermediate base station having: a base station transceiverfor communication with the central unit over the first network; and amobile transmitter for transmitting data to a second network in abroadcast mode for receipt by a receiving unit and not requiring anyback communication link to a receiving unit; a plurality of mobile unitseach operating as a receiving unit, each having: a mobile receiver forreceiving the broadcast data from the base station over the secondnetwork, such that all of the plurality of mobile units receive thebroadcast data at substantially the same time; and a memory for storingthe data; wherein the central unit operates in a broadcast mode to mapat least one portion of the data structure to the memory in each of themobile units through the intermediate base station such that the portionof the data structure is received by substantially all of the mobileunits at the same time.
 2. The mobile network system of claim 1, whereineach of the plurality of mobile units further includes: a display; and aprocessor for running an application to display at least a portion ofstored data.
 3. The mobile network system of claim 2, furthercomprising: a geolocation marker external to the mobile unit forgenerating a signal including position information indicating a relativeposition, which the signal is received by the mobile unit when themobile unit is proximate to the geolocation marker, the applicationrunning on the processor utilizing the relative position during theoperation thereof.
 4. The mobile network system of claim 3, wherein aplurality of geolocation markers are provided and the application isoperable in at least two modes, one mode associated with a firstgeolocation marker and a second mode associated with a secondgeolocation marker, wherein proximity to the first or second geolocationmarker determines the mode.
 5. The mobile network of claim 3, whereinthe application is operable to display a portion of the stored dataassociated with the relative position.
 6. The mobile network of claim 3,wherein the application is operable to display a position associatedwith the relative position on a map.
 7. The mobile network system ofclaim 3, wherein the position information includes a latitude andlongitude associated with the geolocation marker.
 8. The mobile networksystem of claim 3, wherein the position information includes a locationname associated with the geolocation marker.
 9. The mobile networksystem of claim 3, wherein the mobile transmitter of the intermediatebase station is operable to transmit in a broadcast only mode asynchronization signal, thus requiring no communication back to the basestation, and wherein the geolocation marker is operable to receive thesynchronization signal and transmit in a broadcast only mode the signalfor receipt by receiving ones of the plurality of mobile unitsindicating the relative position in response thereto.
 10. The mobilenetwork system of claim 1, wherein the first network comprises theinternet.
 11. The mobile network system of claim 1, wherein the memoryof the intermediate base station includes a temporary storage forstoring the at least one portion of the data structure therein.
 12. Themobile network system of claim 1, wherein the intermediate base stationis operable to continuously transmit in a broadcast mode requiring noresponse from the receiving one or ones of the plurality of mobile unitsthe portion of the data structure stored within the memory thereof tothe plurality of mobile units.
 13. The mobile network system of claim 1,wherein one of the plurality of mobile units is operable to transmit arequest message to the central unit via the at least one intermediatebase station independent of the broadcast operation of the base station,and receive a response message from the central unit via the at leastone intermediate base station in response thereto.
 14. The mobilenetwork system of claim 1, wherein the central unit is operable to map afirst portion of the data structure to the memory of a first mobile unitthrough a first intermediate base station, and map a second portion ofthe data structure to the memory of a second mobile unit through asecond intermediate base station.